The day of flying home started for us at 3am when the alarm went off. We were picked up in a nice limo at the hotel at 4:15am with one other guest who was flying on the same flight we were. The good thing was that today was Saturday and there was virtually no traffic on the freeways. The weather was going to be good with no rain and clear skies, as least on the Florida end.
Even at this time of day, there were more people at the check-in area of United than we expected. Of course, it is the weekend of Mother's Day, and more activity was to be expected. The nice aspect of not having to lug bags to the counter, was the ease of checking in at the kiosk and getting our boarding passes. No credit card to register because we had no luggage – only our hand carrys.
The TSA Free does not seem to be given at random anymore since it is something that can be bought we understand. However, at 75 years old, you are not asked to remove your shoes. Only one of us is over that age, but the other is close to it. One of the security guards asked if I was 75, and I said no, but close. He laughed and said for today, you are 75. OK, I did not have to remove my shoes, which is difficult wearing a back brace anyway.
I did set off the xray with the new knee, got patted down, wand once over, then set free. That job done, we had 2 ½ hours left before our flight at 8am. It appeared it was on time, which is always a good thing to see.
Not much in the way of restaurants are opened before 6am, with the exception of Burger King, McDonalds, and Starbucks. The lines of people waiting at these popular fast food cafes were long. We can say the coffee sure smelled good. We sat across from one restaurant/bar that looked like it might open, but it never did. It was most amusing watching several couples sneak into the restaurant booths to enjoy their fast food. Within minutes, the employees of that restaurant came and asked them to leave. Maybe they know sometimes they can get away with it and not have to use their laps in the regular airport waiting sections.
By 6:30am, we noticed a little corner café was opened, and we enjoyed a light breakfast with lots of very hot coffee. We ordered one scrambled egg sandwich and bacon and eggs, both of which came with cubed deep-fried potatoes on the side. Wow, they were crispy and hot as could be. Reminded us of the almost warm food we had been getting on the ship. You don't realize it until you get a piping hot meal.
We lingered for as long as we could, then asked for the bill. The waitress said to scan the QR code on the table and pay that way. You should have seen her face when we told her we did not own a cell phone. No, really? That was her first reply. Honestly, no, we do not have one. Then she said you're too lazy to do it, or we came from another planet. Nope, not lazy, but we may have come from Mars. Laughing at that, she gladly ran the credit card, and we were on our merry way. She congratulated us for holding out for so long in getting a cell phone.
We boarded the plane by 7:20am, which happened to be full. The flight was uneventful, and we were served a choice of a cookie or a bag of pretzels (maybe 10 of the tiniest ones ever) with a beverage. The offer of another drink came mid flight we think. There were no screens in the seats in front of us, but we did have a way of hooking up to their free wifi to use on our devices. Supposedly TV series and movies were available for free. We didn't bother, and neither did the folks around us.
The only bumpy parts of the flight were while going over Texas where they had been having some severe weather and storms recently. We must have had some tail winds, because we landed almost an hour ahead of time at 10:30am Pacific time. We figured our driver in San Francisco would keep up with the changes if possible. And of not, we would be waiting for a bit.
We waited outside door 8 near Starbucks at the baggage carousel for the driver. He did arrive about one hour later, but on time for the original landing. We all walked to the parking garage and were on the freeway heading for home by noontime.
Getting out of the downtown area in San Francisco is always a challenge. And today was no exception. There did not appear to be any games happening at the ball park, but traffic backed up anyway. Once we made that final approach to the Bay Bridge, we were back to normal conditions. We watched as the car's thermometer went up to 92 degrees outside, which we had heard from everyone that the weather had taken a turn to a nice warm spring day and week ahead. That suited us just fine.
We were home by 1:30pm, and so happy to have completed this journey safe and sound. We have our work cut out for us with fallen trees and weeds well over six feet tall in the back. But the exercise will do us good.
Our final thoughts about this cruise was that it was not a stellar or grand one. Way too many cutbacks had been implemented without prior notice to the guests, especially at the time the final payment was due. Will we book more cruises in the future? Yes, of course, we will, in hopes that the President of HAL will take into consideration all of the comments he heard while on the ship in Zuiderdam. As members approaching the 3000 days at sea mark, we feel that our input and experience counts for something. We sent a list to the President of HAL of 49 cutbacks that we had compiled over the 128 days of this voyage. If we get a response other than a typical form letter, we shall let you all know.
Until next time, thanks for following the blog and for your constructive comments along the way.
Bill & Mary Ann
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